2013 Election

How many times have you seen polls in which a Libertarian candidate with, say, 6 percent of the vote seems to be standing in the way of a Republican victory. It rarely works out that way, even assuming that most of the Libertarian candidates vote would have gone to the Republican. Typically, the Libertarian’s share of the vote dwindles to, say 2.5 percent, and the election isn’t close enough to »

Ken Cuccinelli’s narrow loss in the Virginia gubernatorial race has become the latest battleground in the war between the so-called Republican establishment and Tea Party-type insurgents. The “establishment” blames the Tea Party induced government shutdown for alienating Virginians, a great many of whom work for the federal government. The insurgents blame the Republican Party for not providing enough money to Cuccinelli’s campaign. Some suggest that the “establishment” wanted Cuccinelli to »

Winning is always better than losing, but if I was a Democrat right now, I’d be very worried about how Ken Cuccinelli closed the gap to make a tight race out of Virginia. I think the critics of the GOP establishment that largely abandoned Cuccinelli are correct that they gave up on a winnable race in a cowardly fashion, but shouldn’t overdo this—Cuccinelli was a damaged candidate, some of it »

As expected, Chris Christie has been reelected. His margin of victory will likely be in the vicinity of 20 percent. Christie’s opponent, Barbara Buono, isn’t taking it well. According to NRO’s Betsy Woodruff, Buono tweeted: “I took one for the team. The only problem: I realized too late there was no team.” It might be more accurate to say that there is quite a strong Democrat team, but Buono isn’t »

The Virginia gubernatorial race between Democrat Terry McAuliffe and Republican Ken Cuccinelli hasn’t been called yet. McAuliffe is expected to win. We’ll keep you posted. A McAuliffe victory will give rise to considerable tut-tutting about the danger of nominating Tea Party and/or socially conservative candidates. Indeed, the prospect of that victory has already done so. I’ve pointed to the same kind of danger in specific races, most notably the Delaware »

The off-off-year gubernatorial elections in New Jersey and Virginia are commonly viewed as bellwethers for gauging the off-year congressional races that will follow. These two elections can claim that status because the historically strong performances by Republicans in 1994 and 2010 were preceded by Republican victories in New Jersey and Virginia the year before, while the Democratic landslide of 2006 was preceded by Democratic wins in these two states. This »

Remember when it was scandalous if a candidate for major office did not serve up for public scrutiny all of his tax returns going back years? Return with us now to those thrilling days of…2012. For much of that year’s presidential campaign, as Jim Geraghty recalls, Mitt Romney’s tax returns for 2011 and the period before 2010 were treated as a huge pressing issue for the wealthy candidate: Romney’s tax »